


Flat Broke

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Injury, Jobs, Post-Series, Reunions, Summer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-01-17 21:31:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12374496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: Mabel and Dipper return to Gravity Falls the next summer just as Pacifica is still adjusting to her new life of semi-middle-class-disasterPacifica works at Greasy's, Mabel breaks her leg, they try to pull out The Best Summer Ever from a disaster of confused feelings and bad luck





	1. Make a Wish

Pacifica did not want Mabel to see her in her work uniform, that was rule number one.

Rule number two was that Mabel couldn't mention what she said in her November letter to ANYONE. She had a reputation to maintain and she was apparently a sad-letter-writer at 1am on a Monday during Gravity Falls winter when her pony privileges were revoked.

Rule number three was no pillow fights, tacky clip on nails, or stickers that didn't match her eye color. Originally, she said no stickers slapped on her person at all- but she compromised.

Pacifica Northwest was sort of kind of ready to see Mabel Pines again.

But who was ever really ready for that?

It was 4pm on a Friday, half past when the Greyhound bus was supposed arrive at its station. Pacifica was biting at her nail beds and cursing the customer service industry.

“Sir,” she said in a strained tone, “can I get the check from you?”

She was resisting the urge to call him a waste of hospital funds to ever help him out of the birth canal and then into geriatric care.

He opened and closed his creaking crows-feet eyes, he barely looks up at her before another minute passes, “little sweetheart,” he rasps, “did you get my extra mustard?”

Pacifica narrows her eyes, “it’s on the table.”

He blew air out of his nose, “I wanted the doujin kind.”  
  
“It is the doujin kind,” Pacifica wasn’t built for this, she was going to sell her soul to google next year to buy her own restaurant called ‘Don’t Talk to Me’ and waiters served you whatever they wanted and no one talked.

He slowly raised the sandwich to his quivering lips and chewed, “it doesn’t taste like doujin.”

Pacifica spoke through clenched teeth, “would you like a different kind?”  
  
He lifts his shapeless scruffy face, “could you?”

Pacifica practically stomps back to the kitchen with her hands balling up into fists, she mutters angrily in another tongue until she glances back down at her phone.

“Lazy Susan,” she says quickly as she looks back and forth across the store room, “I actually really have to go. I had to go a half-hour ago.”  
  
“What’s that?” Lazy Susan was bent over a box of napkins in the corner, “we’re out of coffee filters.”  
  
“Those are napkins.” Pacifica slowly pushed aside the condiments to find the oldest tube of mustard to squeeze into a little white container.

“Yeah,” she pushes the box, “we were out of napkins too, but I found ‘em!” She cheers and opens her arms wide.

Pacifica sighs heavily, “I have to go get...some people Sue.” Wasn’t this illegal somewhere? Pacifica had been forbidden from ever reading up on labor laws so she had no idea.

Lazy Susan tilted her head, “Tamara is coming at 5.”  
  
“It’s 5:30.” She angrily squirted the mustard, “I have to go pick up Mabel, like, before this.”  
  
Lazy Susan gave an unreadable smile, “Mabel, huh? Alright. Why don’t you go cover my last table? I’ll cover old Mr. Dodson for ya.”  
  
Pacifica stood up straight, “seriously?” She felt a surge of human warmth, the kind that came from working $8.20 an hour. “‘Cause Dodson has asked for every kind of creamer invented twice and spilled coffee on someone _else's_ table.”  
  
Lazy Susan shrugs, “I’ve dealt with worse.” Pacifica didn’t doubt it. “Now hurry, hurry,” she hands her some napkins and a little square package, “I just had table three left.”

“Thanks Sue,” she gives her a thumbs up and takes the napkins, “I’ll be quick with these hillbillies.”  
  
“Uh-huh,” Lazy Susan was pushing her out the door flap back to the restaurant. “Don’t forget the lighter.”

“Hmm?” Pacifica blinked, her stomach dropped a little at the lighter, restaurant guests and fire usually had disaster written on it. Nevertheless, she had faith in Susan to give her an easy table to finish up at.

Pacifica inches out of the storeroom and tries to read the back of the heads of table three.

One of them was bent down, a bright red Runescape hat just visible and the other one was shaking, their chin-length thick hair bouncy up and down and blue streaks vibrant against the natural brown.

Pacifica blinks a couple times and holds her bundle a little tighter. The table it seemed ordered a box of birthday candles and a lighter- she prepares herself to be forced to smile and sing Happy Birthday.

“Welcome to Greasy’s Diners, I’m Pacifica and I’ll be taking over for-” Her words die in her throat and her eyes go wide.

A teenage girl in a heavy sweater and homemade mini-tea-cozies for earrings sat across from a worried looking boy in a familiar blue vest trying to weight-lift 15-pounds with his mind.

The girl was smiling at her like the idea of sunshine was invented yesterday.

Pacifica’s mouth fell open.

“Surprise!” Mabel threw her hands up.

“Mabel,” Pacifica’s heart soared briefly and then sank, she tried to cover up the oil stains on her apron and the sweat from a six-hour shift. “You’re….” She wiped her hands, she felt like a pimple on a prom night bride.

“We’re here!” Mabel leaned forward as if to hug her and then pauses to look her up and down, “Pacifica…” Her eyes went round and her mouth made a small ‘o’ shape, “you look so cute!” She gushes, “You’re like a real waitress, like a small Lazy Susan.”  
  
Pacifica stumbled backward, “This is fake.”

"How're you?" Mabel seemed to be smiling through this plane of existance, like a burn in Pacifica's hemisphere.

"I'm wearing an apron."

"A cute one!"

Mabel snickers at her and Pacifica fumbles with her hands, “I brought you birthday candles.” She shoved the multi-colored pack toward them and tried _not_ to put on her Customer Voice. “For, uh, yeah.”

“Mabel wanted to surprise you with something,” Dipper was leaning on his hand and looked like he’d rather be wandering around a haunted dumpster or something.

Mabel snatched the candles away and pushed a pie toward them, “it’s our happy-arriving-at-Gravity Falls-versary.”

“Alright,” Pacifica was looking at Mabel’s lined up grown-up teeth and her long legs popping out of a pair of burgundy shorts. She had grown.  
  
“I was so happy we caught the early bus before your shift ended,” Mabel was rearranging the candles to look pleasing and Pacifica was watching her. “I knew this place would be perfect for it.”

“Grunckle Stan will be back with Ford tomorrow,” Dipper explained and Pacifica wasn’t listening.

Mabel finishes putting the candles on the pie and Pacifica quickly reaches over to light them, this isn’t how she imagined their meeting.

“Sorry for like,” Pacifica gestures around, “whatever.” She yanked on her wavy hair to get it to stop frizzing and hopefully look presentable. It was hard to straighten it every morning like she had done pre-money-draining-apocalyptica.

She felt something wrap around her neck and pull her into a splintering hug, Mabel squeezed.

“I’m so happy to see you.” She squeezes again and Pacifica almost chokes.

“Don’t tell anyone about my letters.” She stutters through the embrace into her ear.

Mabel laughs, “duh,” she pushes her chin-length hair back, “I can keep secrets dummy.” She starts to light the rest of the candles one by one. “I’m just glad you’ve been writing at all!”  
  
“She really has.” Dipper picked at the edge of the apple pie and Pacifica watches the wax melt down the side of an orange candle, one slow fat droplet sinking down.  
  
“This isn’t how it looks,” Pacifica rubs her hands down on her apron, “I only work here three days a well.” Sometimes four. Sometimes five.

She doesn’t mention that, or that her father had been much better at keeping his money than making it again. And not investing in orthopedic pills that the stocks kept crashing on.

Mabel rolled her eyes, “I’m making you a sweater with Greasy’s Diner on it.”  
  
“No.”  
  
“It’s almost done,” Dipper was giving her a dry smile.

Pacifica opens her mouth to offer alternatives but Mabel was reaching for her hand.

“We’re going to have such a fun summer this year!” Mabel was beaming and that certainly pried something loose inside of Pacifica, it fluttered. “We’ll make a wish.” Mabel had lit all of the candles and pulled them close. “Altogether, to the second-best summer ever.”  
  
“We averted the apocalypse last year.” Pacifica says flatly.

“Still,” Mabel shrugs, “blow with us.”  
  
Pacifica's eyes dart around the diner to make sure no else is watching, “fine. But it better work then.”  
  
Mabel put her arm around Pacifica’s shoulder, she screws her eyes shut and blows. She feels Mabel’s hand around her neck and Pacifica makes a wish despite herself.


	2. A Bad Start

Pacifica ended up helping close that night, she didn’t mind the extra money and the twins made it go by pretty quickly.

Mabel wanted the night to continue with a sleep over and Extra Special Catching up Party, Pacifica didn’t know how to tell Mabel her feet hurt and she felt like a hag in a $20 dress. Luckily, Dipper says they have to unpack and that they can hang out tomorrow anyway.

Mabel gave Pacifica another hug and said she had to go see Grenda and Candy now too anyway, Pacifica swallows some unknown sticky feeling and nods.

The next day feels slightly worse, it was balmy and cloudless and Pacifica felt like she might sweat through the soles of her shoes. Mabel wanted to go swimming and rock-finding and to take her to some Look Out Point to point at teenagers trying to make out.

Pacifica was only glad she could dig up a good pair of Versace pumps and sweater that was still in this year’s Teen Vogue (that was hard to get, but she elbowed a 30-year-old fair and square at the 70% off sale for it).

She arrives in a skirt that was made in a Canadian boutique and the perfume makes her hands feel a little less moist.

Mabel waved at her ecstatically from outside the mystery shack, “Pacifica!” She cheered when Pacifica finished biking up. “Your summer has officially begun!” She sang and did jazz hands,

“Good,” Pacifica discarded her baby blue bike helmet quickly. “I’m _done_ with the whole first part of this year.”

“I’ll make you forget the rest of the year even happened,” Mabel shook a piece of paper, “with an itinerary for the best summer ever. Dipper has his boring list of trying to choke on dust from books all summer, but we have this!” She held up the bedazzled lime green paper with misspelled curly letters and half a dozen stickers.

Pacifica squints her eyes, “I don’t think Waddles can fit in both a scuba outfit and a wedding dress at the same time.”

“That’s quitters talk,” Mabel slapped her on the shoulder, “and we can start with whatever you want! Underwater pig weddings is for advanced summer.” She bounces on her heels, “Candy is finishing a Sudden-Death-Card-Castle Building contest and Grenda is trying out for some WWE thing her uncle recommended. You have me all to yourself!”

Pacifica gulps, “well. Did, did you have something in mind?”

Mabel pushes her short hair back, “We could do something you like! Like go to the mall.”

_Money._

“It’s your summer,” she sniffs back and looks away.

“What about bike riding to this weird looking stump Grunkle Stan found? I could spray paint it into a bunny.”

_Biking. Sweating. Mabel._

Pacifica cringed, “maybe, like later.”

“Um,” Mabel tapped her chin, “what about going to the beach and ask Mermando about his hobbies slash life interests slash ideal wife?” Mabel was looking curiously at her now.

_Watching Mabel go after some guy._

Pacifica flips her hair back, “let’s start small.” She eyes the list and her gaze lands on ‘New Fun Rules Baseball,’ “you have a baseball bat?”

Mabel shook her head, “We have one cracked frisbee and imagination!” She was elbowing Pacifica and looked as excited as she always did.

Pacifica bites her lips and decides to suck it up for a just a little, she could think-away sweat, that would be her next invention. “I can work with that.”

Dipper came out a second later and grumbles at being dragged into frisbee with them.

It started off pretty normally, they make a triangle, Mabel caught, Dipper and Pacifica pretended to run and Mabel scored the most points at ‘ricochet frisbee’ that she made up immediately. Only a couple birds got hurt.

“Over here, over here!” Pacifica caught the frisbee gracefully, suddenly glad for all her sports lessons and family pride, she turns toward Mabel and aims.

Mabel waves, “I’m gonna go long! Get some ricochet points Pacifica.”

Pacifica rolls her eyes, “I can throw farther you know. Keep going.”

Mabel waved her arms and ran frantically backward, “is this what they play on rich people ponies?”

She snorts, “I’ll show you my pony later.” Even if it was only on lease. She smoothly lets the frisbee soar and Mabel jumps, it grazes the top of her fingers and keeps going.

“Whoa, nice one.” Mabel says to her before back paddling toward the gliding disk.

Pacifica happily pats herself on the back for the throw, but then Mabel stumbled.

Mabel stumbled and Pacifica can only watch in slow motion as her heel slips down. Her foot drops and her whole ankle disappears into a hole, Pacifica can’t move fast enough, she sees Mabel’s body lurch. There was a sickening crunching noise and Mabel crumples.

“Mabel!”

Mabel let out a soft sharp gasp and Pacifica is running.

Something like shock and pain overcame her features, Pacifica is scrambling and glancing at her ankle which sat at an awkward angle in a gopher hole. Mabel was letting out a faint but profound wail the next moment.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Pacifica chants. 

“What, what happened?” Dipper comes jogging over next and Pacifica just points.

“She fell,” Pacifica looks in both directions, thoughts frying, “someone get a, a, I don’t know, doctor!”

Mabel lets out a high-pitch whine and looks at her foot with a complicated look of awe and fear.

“I’m calling the ambulance!” Dipper was the first to act and tap on his phone. Pacifica falls to her knees next to Mabel.

She reaches her hand out blindly and latches onto Pacifica’s, her eyes stream and she holds Pacifica in a vice-grip as she lets out a muffled cry, Pacifica pets her hair weakly.

Mabel holds onto her until her fingers turn purple and they huddled closer and closer together.

That was the start of an entirely different type of summer.

\-------------

Her thoughts kept chasing themselves in circles: Mabel was hurt, Mabel was hurt, Mabel was hurt. _She had that look on her face._

Pacifica couldn’t get the grimace of pain Mabel made when the EMTs gently lifted her out of the gopher hole, ankle already swollen and purple. “Ow.” Pacifica squeezed her hand even tighter and watched as they lifted her into the vehicle and asked her a series of questions.

“Did you hit your head?”  
  
“No.”   
  
“How do you feel?”   
  
“Awful,” Mabel was still looking at her foot in horror. They ask her some more questions until they get her positioned in the vehicle.

“Okay, Miss Pine, we’re going to take you to the hospital now.”

Pacifica tries to climb in after them, “you better take the main roads, none of that bumpy business. She just fell like five feet.”

An EMT worker puts her hand up, “family only.”  
  
Pacifica gapes at them, “do you know who my d-” Pacifica pauses and then bites back her next words, “you have room.” She says instead of her usual line.

“Family only.”

Pacifica watches with a sinking feeling in her stomach as the ambulance drives away, she only remembers to wave just as she sees a pale hand waving back at her through the window. “Main roads!” Pacifica yells after them, “no bumps, you hear me?”  
  
She goes to retrieve her bike and start pedaling.

Pacifica ends up spending two hours in hospital waiting and ruining her nail beds by accidently chewing on them. Mabel was hurt, Mabel was getting a cast on.

This was going to be entirely different kind of summer.

========

Pacifica didn’t know how to feel as she watches Mabel slump over in the hospital bed, something unfamiliar written in her posture, drooping, bent. Like watching a war general ride home after a military defeat.

Pacifica stood outside and put one tentative hand on the cool glass.

Her thoughts race each other like untrained dogs and kept coming back to the empty gasp on Mabel’s face when her ankle popped. Pacifica cringes and balls up her hand.

“This sucks,” Pacifica finally says with a scowl.

She feels Dipper shift next to her, “she said she always wanted to decorate a cast like this.”

Pacifica glances at him sharply, “That was totally fake.”

He sighs, “I know.”

Their eyes meet and Dipper looks her up and down, “so.” He clears his throat, “You and my sister have been writing.”

Pacifica folds her arms across her chest, “yeah.” She shifts back, “Like you didn’t know.”

Dipper gives a weak smile, “she does talk about it a lot.”

Pacifica looks away and touches the glass again, “she doesn’t deserve this. Of all people...” The neon pink cast practically glows in the dimness of the sundown.

There is a moment of silence, Pacifica looks back at Dipper, he meets her eye, “Mabel is pretty great.” He says simply, “She got me a date for homecoming and already made you three different pairs of pony socks you know.”

Pacifica frowns at him, trying to read his look. “I know.”

Dipper watches her and then puts out his hand, “You’re right. Mabel...doesn’t deserve this.”

Pacifica definitely looks away at that and leans weakly on the wall, she huffs, “I know.”

“Mabel is always doing stuff for us.” He puts his hand out, “we could do the same.”

Pacifica raises an eyebrow, “I can’t knit.”

He scratches his chin, “I mean more like, stuff we can do.”

She shifts her hips, “Not a body-swap magic deal or whatever you Pines do I hope.”

He visibly rolls his eyes, “Ugh, I _mean_ helping Mabel with her summer. Of fun and love and whatever  she wants.”

Pacifica hums and studies his outstretched hand, “you want to make some sort of pact to cheer Mabel up from her broken ankle…?” She shifted from side to side.

“Exactly.”

She takes a deep breath, glances at Mabel, and puts her hand out, “For the summer.”

“For the summer.”

They shake.


	3. Summer Promises

Pacifica could feel herself hovering, it was not a good feeling, Northwest’s didn’t hover. They could observe, present cool indifference perhaps, scoff and pointedly linger. They did not circle a girl’s hospital bed like an awkward bird of prey trying to figure out how to roost.

She couldn’t stop staring at Mabel’s bent head, her bowed posture that was like a willow tree swept sideways by a strong wind, heavy invisible stones on her shoulders.

Pacifica leaned forward and snapped twice, “Hey!” She barked, “come on. None of this.”  
  
Mabel jerked her head up and looked around like she was coming out of a dream. She broke into her usual smile made of the fluff they put in stuffed animal hearts. She sat up straight, “What were we saying?” She beamed and then looked her up and down, “Pacifica that is such a great top.”  
  
She shook her head and frowned a little, “what did I _just_ say?”  
  
Mabel rolled her eyes, “Nothing. I already told you, I’m great! Splendified.”  
  
“Mabel…”  
  
Mabel buzzed, “Splendified. That’s my new word. Like, splendid but with an attitude. A splendid that plays by her own rules, kisses the bad boys, wears a leather jacket.”  
  
“Yeah. Splendid,” Pacifica leaned forward, “As in totally bummed,” she blows air out of her nose, “I’m getting second hand depression from you all the way over here.”

Mabel’s smile becomes thin and tense, she adjusts her cast, she hunches slightly, “I’m fine. I mean, my entire summer is completely wrecked, and I’m doomed to stay in bed forever where I might as well do crossword puzzles for three months. Haha. Ha!”

Pacifica crosses her arms over her chest, “There it is.”  
  
“But anyone can get over this!” Mabel’s head was bent, and her eyes were distant.

“Sure,” Pacifica studies her, “Also, I like crossword puzzles.”  
  
Mabel gives a little laugh, “I know Pacifica.” She blinks, “I know.”

They are eyeing each other when there is a quick knock at the door, Dipper comes back in holding a Styrofoam cup and looking more bedraggled than usual.

He glances between them and takes a sip of his drink before putting a hand in his pocket, “Candy wanted me to tell you that she’ll be here in the hour. Grunkle Stan and Ford are also on their way.”  
  
Mabel groans, “No…”  
  
Dipper gave a patented deep frown, “They’re bringing presents?”  
  
Mabel shakes her head, “It’s enough I’ve ruined my summer, I don’t want to take time out of their fun too.”  
  
“They want to see you.” Mabel just looked defeated by some unknown force, Dipper sighs and reached into his pocket, “I found this rainbow colored mini-slinky.”  
  
That seemed to moderately distract her as Pacifica runs through options in her head, ‘buy her a new leg’ and ‘somehow send her to Disney world’ were in there.

She mulls over a couple things before she puts a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”  
  
Dipper takes another sip of what appeared to be a green Monster Energy drink and just nods.

“Any ideas for this?” He whispers. “Something fun for her.”

Pacifica shrugs lightly, “Fun wasn’t exactly my strong suit. Unless we can afford to rent a private jet or hold a party with mini-shrimp cocktails and a dress code.”  
  
Dipper wipes his brow, “noted.”  
  
Pacifica waves and leaves the room. She goes to find some pieces of paper.

\----------

Pacifica waits for Candy, Grenda, the local police department, five shop owners, most of Gravity Falls plus the ‘Grunckles’ to visit Mabel to give her well-wishes. Pacifica wasn’t fond of crowds, she had a tendency to offend them easily and found their general collective odor grating.

She walks into the room with a couple strips of paper balled up in her right hand and what felt like a metal pole through her spine. The lights were drawing long shadows across the small room and several older patients were dozing in each corner.

Mabel was chatting with a drooping old lady next to her

“And then, there’s this boy named Henry. He’s kind of a dweeb, wears boat shoes, but he gave me his pudding at lunch and I’m completely sure that meant something.”

Pacifica’s left eye twitches and she creeps up closer, the old women grunts back, Pacifica slips up besides Mabel’s bed and clears her throat.

Mabel jumps at the noise and jostles her cast slightly.

“Pacifica!” Mabel blinks, “I thought you went home.”  
  
Pacifica stiffly lifts herself up, “I have this for you.”

Mabel tilts her head slightly, reminding her of a confused golden retriever. Pacifica drops the first slip on her lap like a cat depositing a mouse reluctantly on an incompetent owner’s lap. She looks away immediately.

Mabel fiddles with it, “Paper?”  
  
“Open it.” She says bluntly and flips her short blonde hair back.

“Uh,” Mabel takes it and opens it with her brown eyes perfectly wide. She lifts her eyebrows, “Is that a picture of you?”  
  
“Something like that.” She says briskly, “Pacifica Dollars. Or Pacifica Pounds if you would like. Which I thought you might since it rhymes.”

Mabel observes with a slow grin, “I do like rhyming.”

She juggles the next words around in her mouth like unwieldy marbles, “it’s a present.” She grimaces like she’s getting a bad cold from all this. “Open it.”

Mabel reads it carefully, “It just says,” she squints, “‘ _you’re nice or something sometimes. Which is fine_ ,’” Mabel reads the card out loud and laughs, “What?”  
  
“It’s a ‘nice thing’,” she puts it in air quotes, “‘it cheers people up apparently.”  
  
“By jove,” Mabel leaned forward dangerously close to the side of the bed, “Are you literally paying me compliments?”  
  
“Well,” Pacifica sniffs, “it’s only ‘cause seeing you like this is unnatural. The world might as well end again.”  
  
Mabel’s face was an absolute star going supernova, “Say that again.”  
  
Pacifica looks at her feet, “I didn’t say anything.”  
  
“You think me having a bad time is the world ending.”  
  
Pacifica shakes her head, “Dipper said I had to do something to cheer you up.” Pacifica turns her back on her, “Just read the back.”

Mabel hums and she could feel her glowing behind Pacifica, she grumbles to herself quietly and Mabel reads the next part out loud, “It just says ‘ground sledding’?”  
  
Pacifica blinks over her shoulder, “You can cash in at any time. For an… activity.” She huffs, “So your summer can’t be terrible. You’re welcome.” She hands her the other two slips of paper. “We can do whatever you want.”  
  
Mabel was practically vibrating, “These are like fun tickets?”  
  
“Pacifica Pounds.”

“Right right,” She grins and Pacifica could count all of the teeth in Mabel’s head. “This is not what I expected.”

“And as long it doesn’t involve glitter.” She adds sharply and Mabel snorts.

“Even if I ask nicely?”  
  
Pacifica shifts from foot to foot, “Don’t be cute.”  
  
Mabel laughs, “I can’t believe you made these.”  
  
Pacifica felt a soft smile growing across her face. She crept a little closer. She was hovering again.

“My summer might already be ruined by having to work, but yours like, doesn’t have to be I guess.”  
  
Mabel lifts both of her eyebrows, her face slowly folds into something determined, familiar, aglow to the point of being hard to look at.

“No way!” Mabel pumps her fist in the air, “We’re _both_ going to have a fantastic summer, that’s what Mabel’s best at.”  
  
Pacifica flashes her a skeptical look but feels the small smile form on her face as well, Mabel’s posture was completely upright.  
  
“Let’s bedazzle this baby.” Mabel picks up her cast and once again looked ready to star in a 1920s plucky heroine story.

\----------

Pacifica could smell burnt mac and cheese and cheap hand lotion, she had the feeling she was getting old-person-flakes under her fingernails. She tries to breathe through her nose as she rearranges herself on the Mystery Shack’s floor again.

“Do you guys even vacuum?” She dusts her pants off.

Dipper shoots her a look, “It’s part of the experience.”

“I dusted it yesterday little dude,” Soos says from across the room.  
  
Pacifica opens her mouth to make a few comments involving the _real_ mystery of the Mystery Shack, but something is thrust right in front of her nose.

“Hold this.”

Pacifica fumbles to get ahold of a little hot glue gun and make sure the cord doesn’t tangle, she grabs tightly onto the handle. “Is that…”  
  
“Almost there!” Mabel was sticking her tongue out a little and concentrating like she was performing open-heart surgery. “Almost there…”  
  
She was carefully sticking a bright red star jewel on the rim of her cast, Soos leans forward to watch her.

He taps his fingertips together, “Careful,” he warns like they’re in a suspense drama, “careful!”

“Yes...yes,” She mutters, “Ah-ha!” Mabel makes a final roar and plops the star down delicately between a moon symbol and heart symbol, Pacifica almost gets glue on her knee as she makes a face at them.

“This is gonna be so freakin cool!” Mabel continues to spell her name out and add different designs on the large bulky cast around her leg. Pacifica monitors her quietly and makes sure the glue hadn’t gotten in her hair.

Her wrist watch goes off with a series of loud beeps a second later, she glances down. “Well,” she hands the hot glue gun over to Dipper who almost drops it too, “I have to go make sure my mom isn’t crying under the cupboard over her best pearls again.”  
  
Dipper snorts, “What?”  
  
Pacifica looks away, “You don’t want to know.”  
  
She dusts her pants off once more, “Wait!” Mabel leans over and grabs Pacifica’s wrist, her eyes huge saucers in the light. “You can’t go yet. It’s the night. The full moon night.”

“Right.” Pacifica wrinkles her nose, “Does that mean you’re just going to show me pictures of werewolves from your dusty demon-summoning journals?”

Mabel gives a snort and Dipper opens his mouth in full defense-mode, finger in the air and expression flat-lining. Mabel clears her throat to stop him and starts shaking Pacifica’s shoulder violently.

“No, I just mean it’s time!’

Pacifica quirks an eyebrow up, “time?”  
  
Mabel reaches into her pocket and throws a little paper forward, “It’s time!”

Pacifica blinks as she reads her own handwriting, “oh.”  
  
“As in oh my gosh, we’re gonna have blast!”

Dipper and Soos eye them, Mabel claps her hands together and makes a wide, empty face, which was spooky in its own right, “Summer ghost stories.”

Soos lights up and Dipper makes his obnoxious ‘intrigued’ face. Pacifica glances at Mabel, it had been three days since she got back from the hospital.

She threaded her hand through her hair, “you really want to cash this in now?” She looks around the dim room with the shag carpet and the TV playing ‘Dropping People off Things’ on HGTV in the background.

Mabel gives her a thumbs up, “No stories about clamation, but yeah.”  
  
“How would we...never mind.”  
  
“Ghost stories, ghost stories, ghost stories!” Soos starts chanting and pushes the table aside to form a circle, “Dudes, I’m going to close my eyes and start getting myself scared right now.”  
  
“Soos, no.” Dipper looked concerned.

Pacifica rearranges herself besides Mabel, “Don’t move your leg too much…”  
  
Mabel put her fists in the air, “Someone go get my lantern!” She shouts as Pacifica covers her ears.  
  
They fetch a bright electric camping lantern and Soos turns off the rest of the lights in the entire shack. Stan and Ford come up to investigate what was going on and somehow Pacifica ends up in a camping circle next to a weary old man and a very excited teen.

She scoots closer to Mabel, it wasn’t exactly a campfire or perfect ghost-story location, but, she twists her hair, Mabel seemed pleased.

“We’ll go around the circle, whoever can hold their breath the longest gets to go first, ready? GO!” Mabel yells quickly and then took a deep breath as she filled her cheeks with air.

“Oh no,” Pacifica says flatly, “I’ve already lost.” Mabel elbows her and she just flashes her a quick grin.

Soos ended up winning the breath-holding contest.

“Alright lil dudes and less lil dudes,” Soos nods his head at the grunkles, who do not seem amused at that, “This is a story about a maintenance man.”

They all share a glance, Pacifica mouths ‘really?’ To herself.

“A maintenance man who worked in a rundown shack in the woods, oooooh.” He wiggles his fingers as he ‘ooohs.’

“This place is _not_ rundown,” Stan defends tersely and continues to eat the bag of marshmallows he brought.

Ford says steadily, “Let him finish.”

“And he got to live the ideal life,” Soos was still going, “playing. Bonding with his father figure. Not worrying about bills and junk, and then one day…” He puts his fingers in the air, “HE HAD TO FILL OUT SCHEDULE C ATTATCHMENT FORMS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES AND TALK TO Janet from the federal government on the phone! And she kept putting him on hold!” Soos’s face contorted and he took deep breaths. “Where is Janet? Where is line 8b Janet? Line 8b doesn’t exist!”

Soos took a deep breath in, “and that… is based on a true story.”  
  
A long pause follows.

“Boo.” Pacifica threw popcorn.

“Soos, these aren’t supposed to be real.”  
  
“Soos, I told you, never talk to the feds and never _never ever_ fill out any forms. That’s how that get you. The three F’s: no forms, no feds, no f-“  
  
“The kid’s Stanley!”

“Right,” he says with a finger in the air, “the point is, never own a pen and fake your own death if the IRS starts asking questions.”  
  
Ford flashes him a disapproving look, “This explains so much.”  
  
Everyone talked over each other as Pacifica made a mental note to perhaps make up different activities for her Pacifica Pounds next time. Mabel laughs.

She reaches over to pat his hand, “That is terrifying.”  
  
Soos nods, “She gets it.”

“Alright, everyone pull their pants up,” Stan adjusted his collar, “I have a real horror story involving the terror of the real world. And ex-wives. And people driving SUVs into your hotel room, who are also your ex-wife.”  
  
Ford glances at him, “Maybe not yet.”

“They’re old enough for the real world!”

Dipper puts his hand up, “We’re going around the circle. It’s my turn.”  
  
“Fine fine.”  
  
In the end, Dipper tells the story about Summerween, which Pacifica had already heard about so it wasn’t particularly hair-raising (plus he kept back-peddling and mixing parts up).

Mabel told the story of a haunted kitchen and hamburgers asking to be flipped over, it managed to get a few chuckles out of Pacifica herself. She only gives a forlorn sigh when it becomes her turn.

“The GAP,” she says simply, “right next to a JC Penny.”  
  
Mabel elbows her, “and here I thought you were gonna say something about having to give half your sandwich away to someone.”  
  
“That happens after you have to walk through the Old Navy in chacos,” she sniffs and someone chuckles off to her left.

“Where did you even get this girl?”

“Where did we even get any of these kids…” Stan grumbled, “I don’t even know where they come from anymore. I have like five grandkids now.”

“That’s the whole story,” Pacifica concludes shortly and shrugs.

Mabel gives her the puppy dog eyes but she just waves her hand in the air, she never said she would be good at her own activities.

“No offense dudes but none of these stories have been that scary.” Soos passed Dipper another round of orange sodas.

“Well well,” Ford rubbed her hands together, “It could be time for me to remedy that.” They all turn to Ford mutely as he gives them a sly look.

Dipper leans forward, “Yes! Space story.”  
  
Ford nods, “Space. Terror. A lizard race of people with no sense of boundaries.” He dims the lantern slightly, “this is the story of the Ithcar Nebula and the prison of the cold star.”

“Nice,” Dipper put his hands together.

Pacifica managed to roll her eyes but the hairs on the back of her neck were already standing on end. She watches Ford’s face as he clears his throat.

“It all started with a distress signal with a bounty on it…”  
  
Pacifica feels herself leaning in despite herself, the story of the empty prison with a water trickling from somewhere started to unfold. A cold water with voices coming out of the cracks in the walls.

Ford’s voice became husky and uneven, his eyes narrowing and expression morphing into something dark and crooked as he continued. Pacifica can feel her heart speed up, Mabel scoots closer to her and Pacifica can feel a hand grab her arm.

“It’s the final chamber...And I see where the black water is slowly, slowly, trickling from.”

“ _He still has the protection bubble, he still has the protection bubble,_ ” Mabel mutters as Ford approaches the puddle of pitch black water.

Pacifica reaches over and squeezes Mabel’s uncovered knee, “It’s fine…” She tries to say as she could feel her muscles clenching too.

“...and I checked the vitals of the area. Nothing, no heartbeat, no signs of life. Just like before. But the trickling noise continues as the distress signal picks up,” Ford pauses and his words get low and very slow, “so I approach the puddle in the fifth hall. Drip drip drip,” he makes the sound, “drip, drip, drip.”  
  
Mabel was practically on Pacifica’s lap as the black water swelled, Pacifica grabs onto Mabel’s shirt, “drip drip drip.” She can feel her fingers numb as Mabel squeezes them.  
  
Ford takes a deep breath, “I look into the black waters, all is quiet except for my monitor...a ripple goes out from the very center…a final drip. Drip. Drip.” Pacifica gulps, Ford lets a very very long moment. He wets his lips, “BOOM! The clawed hand of Ithcar surges out of the center!”

“Aaaaaaaah,” yelling fills the room and Pacifica buries her face in something warm and moving as her pulse spikes.

She yells and feels Mabel pull on her hair and claw at her as she crawls fully into her lap and her voice shakes the air.  
  
“But the hand was trapped in the witch’s circle!” Soos yelled and Stan stuffed more marshmallows into his mouth anxiously.

“No no no no,” Dipper was rocking back and forth.

Ford chuckles and Pacifica wants to bite him, she grabs onto Mabel harder.

“And then it tries to grab me but I shoot it and release the Tzipnor from the box dimension.” He shrugs, “really not a big deal.”  
  
Pacifica glares at him and catches her breath after screaming. “Darn it…” Mabel grabs onto Pacifica’s waist and they both untangle their limbs. Pacifica can feel her neck heating up as they ease back from each other.

Mabel then starts laughing, rocking a little bit as she sat on her.

“Perfect!”

Pacifica straightens her collar, “What?”  
  
Mabel throws her hands in the air, “that was perfect grunkle Ford!” She start laughing again.

Dipper’s eyes were wide, “I’m never going to sleep ever again.”  
  
“Again! Again!” Soos cheered, “And for Melody too when she gets back.”  
  
Pacifica takes imaginary lint off herself, “A little excessive…” She says loudly.

Mabel pinches her cheek, “admit it, you were scared.”  
  
Pacifica blows her bangs out of her face, “I was somewhat shaken.” She says flatly.

Mabel hides her mouth and chuckles, “You’re a riot Pac,” she was still on her lap, still grinning at her, squeezing her carefully, “this was a great ideal.”  
  
Pacifica has to look away, “It’s just for the summer.”  
  
They hold a very long look between each other. “It’ll be a good one.” Mabel finishes.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! one my commission pieces I thought I'd post in parts


End file.
